Popularity dwindling for no-tax-hike pledge

The fear factor surrounding Grover Norquist is skyrocketing as the debt-ceiling debate in Washington, D.C., drags on without resolution.

Norquist, keeper of the I-will-not-raise-taxes pledge signed by many lawmakers, had a similar aura in Arizona over the last two years.

The Taxpayer Protection Pledge he circulates was the shield used to fend off Gov. Jan Brewer's insistence on a temporary sales-tax increase. It worked for nearly a year, as lawmakers balked at a vote they feared would be seen as an endorsement of a tax hike.

But in the end, the governor prevailed. Fifteen lawmakers went back on their pledge and voted to send the sales-tax matter to the ballot. For breaking that pledge, not a single lawmaker suffered the retribution implied by Norquist: defeat at the polls.

And this year, with the most conservative Legislature in recent history seated at the Capitol, the number of pledge takers is down 45 percent from last year.

In the "tea party Senate" presided over by Russell Pearce, only five of the 21 Republicans are on the list maintained by Americans for Tax Reform. Democrats routinely spurn the pledge.

Driggs signed the pledge when he first ran for office in 2006, and he stuck to it when he voted against the sales-tax referral. But when he moved to the Senate this year, he didn't renew his vow.

Like other Republican lawmakers, Driggs said he has come to realize the only pledge that really matters is the one he makes to his constituents, not to a guy in D.C.

"He doesn't live in my district," Driggs said of Norquist.

Sen. Steve Pierce, R-Prescott, also dropped off the list this year.

"It's important for you to believe it, not sign it," Pierce said. "That's where I am."

After one term in the Legislature, he saw how iron-clad pledges (the Norquist pledge says, "I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes") can handcuff lawmakers.

"They want you to sign something so they can come back and pressure you," Pierce said of the various groups that push pledges.

Pierce did break his pledge when he voted to send the sales-tax matter to voters last year. At least that's how Americans for Tax Reform saw it; Arizona lawmakers argued otherwise, saying they were only giving voters a choice.

But it didn't matter: Pierce faced only a write-in opponent in his GOP primary, and easily bested a Democrat in the general election.

Likewise, state Sen. Steve Yarbrough got no pushback for voting to send the sales-tax questions to the May 2010 ballot.

That might be because the Chandler Republican had no opposition when he ran for a state Senate seat last fall.

But Yarbrough said pledges might be overstated.

"My perspective is I may very well not agree with raising taxes, but I've never felt comfortable taking pledges," he said.

Phone calls to Americans for Tax Reform for their take on why the Arizona legislative numbers have dropped were not returned.